On 4th
by WaynesDemon
Summary: He only had so much time before he lost them...lost everything.


"Bruce."

The mellowed scent of cigars, liquor and soot were all too familiar to his senses as the grizzled voice broke through all the blood currently rushing through his head. Looking up to see Jim Gordon standing there through rusted bars and his already hazy vision didn't help to settle his his raging emotions that were still bursting at the seams. His fingernails had been hidden in his limp hair for his didn't have time to keep himself kept for the warden who had processed him into his holding cell, nor did he care.

"You look like hell."

He knew he did. It was a classic response between the two of them. But more than often it was used to bring on a short waste of humor upon a dire situation before it all went grim and by the minuscule grin that was forming underneath the thick white hairs covering his upper lip, he knew it was exactly that. He never responded and his eyebrows only further set deeper into his scowl. Gordon noticed this. The silent warning that the man gave and felt his shoulder drop.

"I just talked to the DA,"he started, waiting for the other man to silence him with knowledge that he felt he already had, but his gaze never faltered from the cracked stone wall in front of him, thus he continued. "says it could be a day or two before they hold a court appearance for you. They even bumped back a few of their other cases to make sure this one got processed due to the-"he drew in a shuddered breath."extent of it."

Silence fell upon the two men again, but to the vigilante they were some of the loudest seconds of his life. The large metals doors just beyond the actual criminal housing shut time after time. Bringing in criminal after criminal. A minute didn't pass when there was a dirty face covered in blood with a permanently set sneer plastered onto a wild face came into view, but it was Gotham after all. And the city was crawling with maniacal bastards who kill and hurt for the hell of it. Most of the times the police did their job and cleaned the trash of the streets but other times they didn't know who to look for and just grabbed the closest person who fit the description and hauled them off to the big house. Just for a damn clap on the back from city who was too full of itself to even give a shit.

Looking back at the dark haired man currently sprawled across a thin metal bench in a cell far to small for him, he was reminded of how backwards this city was as well as unforgiving. Like he said, sometimes the police did their job and sometimes they didn't. They got the job done this time, but it was just the wrong damn person.

He shifted back the fog stained glasses resting on the bridge of his nose back into their rightful place, hoping that the view would change, but the lenses were old and scratched. And they were as much a help to this current predicament than he was.

"You know, some people just want to see you crash and burn, Bruce. They've had it out for your company for ages and this was the easiest way to get to you."

At this point the commissioner felt as if he was speaking to himself, but it didn't matter, he knew he was listening.

"That reporter was nothing but trouble,"he sneered."Just like any other scum in this city trying to make a quick buck off of fake stories and propaganda, it's horseshit!"

The tip of his loafer came in contact with another steel cage behind him and the sharp cling that came off of it reverberated throughout the small holding space. Running his hand up the length of his face it came to settled within his dusty red hair as he leaned against the adjacent wall. He had been called upon to handle the ordeal that was spiraling out of control by the second, but upon learning who was involved within it he had been forbidden to have any relation to the case for it was against the district code. His hands were tied and he couldn't break the bonds that bound them even if he wanted to. He'd be of no assistance to him if he was jailed as well. A sigh left his chapped lips as his eyes screwed shut underneath his mop of hair.

"I know you didn't do it,"he picked his head up from where it hung upon the cells bars."I know you're innocent."

"You're just one person Jim."hearing the other man's. How it sounded so raspy, weak. Even more than before, startled him. "And you're the only person on this side who knows what and who I really am."

The man's blue eyes were dim and sunken in. Sagging with dark bags circling underneath them, but somehow they still held the curdling rage that he was already so familiar with.

"But none of that matters. your testimonial is voided regardless even if you managed to find your way on that courtroom stand. They've frozen all of Bruce Wayne's assets which means that Batman can't be I've locked down all resources that the cave had just incase someone decided to go investigate."

Jim hummed in a tone barely above a whisper. "And we both know someone will, as soon as the get the chance."

Gordon's green gaze fell back on the cell in which the other resided and hardened. "I don't know exactly how long I'll be able to hold them off, I can buy you a week at the most, but with both of our luck right now I'd say even less than that."

The air around the two men because tense once again and commissioner could barely hold himself together in these troublesome moments let alone think straight in the small cramped space he paced between.

"There's no waiting this one out."he paused in his stride with his eyes thinned. "Anything could happen in the time you're in here. I know men, conniving men in the force and in the big house who know their way around a legal system and could reach out and break you if they wanted to."

"And they _**have**_."The man's teeth gritted as his balled already tightened fist. "They came into my house and took them from me in the middle of the night and put me in this damn prison, Jim!"

Gordon went silent finding his hands sheathed within his trench coat pockets.

"It's my own damn fault they're in this mess to begin with and I gave them my word that I'd get them out."

"I know you did Bruce"Gordon reasoned.

The other man, who had braced himself against the stone wall curled his fingers into the stone as he saw his shoulder fold in on themselves.

"Where are they?"

A distant muffled crack of the large metal doors opening caused Gordon to turn his head to the translucent glass that bordered the frame of the metal one beside him and saw the familiar stature of the warden stocking down the hall.

"They're in the Millings Harbor Protection housing 2 miles outside of Gotham on 4th, but I got word from one of my men that Damian and Tim might be heading somewhere else,"

Those heavy plated boots were getting closer and his time was thinning.

Gordon's eyes lingered on the doorway for just a few moments before a soft sigh escaped his lips."Bruce I know you're not one to ask for help, but I need you to know, I'll do whatever I can to help you out"

The man didn't respond but he knew his answer. several seconds passed and the door that lined the end of the hallway open with the stout face of the warden slid inside, his thick arm propping the door open.

"Time's up Commish."

Gordon nodded, then glanced back towards Bruce before turning to head out.

Soon enough, the door locked with a loud snap behind the two men and Bruce could only grit his teeth. Letting out a cry he slammed his fist into the steel bars in front of him, not caring that his fist were buzzing with a searing pain afterwards. It had all happened so fast with no time to process what had happened that night that he remembered so clearly but still managed to be but a smudge of his memory. The sudden flashes behind his eyes and the ringing in his ears from the screams that had echoed through the searing night. How his house had been tarnished and trashed and the looks on his all of his sons eyes as they were all dragged away and loaded into squad cars with piercing sirens that made his ears bleed. It was a daunting hell that faced him and it involved the ones that he cared the most about, yet all he had was a quick mind and his bloody fist to guide him. Still he clenched them harder and his eyes became stone, because they would have to be enough.


End file.
